21
$\begingroup$

The question speaks mostly for itself. I'm currently doing high school and while I'm very interested in mathematics, I do not have the appropriate level to answer many questions. Complex Vector Fields, Einstein Summation and Analytical Formulas fly way over my head (although they do sound interesting). Where could I find some simpler questions which I could answer and help other people with.

(a very long) P.S. After some thinking I've realized that this question really comes down to the real purpose of MathSE. At the one hand you want to document all questions and their answers, but you also want to help the person asking the question. These two mostly overlap of course, but if you, lets say, just copied a page from your math homework stating this:

$$\int_{-2}^{2} x^3 dx$$

And saying something like "My book says this is equal to zero, but I do not understand". Then these motives do not overlap. While we could help the person in question it wouldn't be any good to archive this question. I personally would still like to help since integration is one of the things I (think I) genuinely understand. However others might see this as a waste of time and space. So that's interesting I guess. I don't really have a solution or conclusion to this conundrum, but I felt like leaving my own perspective and procrastinating from the homework I should be doing right now.

But just to get back on topic: What tags have questions I could answer? What are some good searchterms I could use? I'd love to get some advice!

$\endgroup$
3

3 Answers 3

25
$\begingroup$

Good tags for you might include . , , , , and . Maybe you don't feel comfortable answering calculus or linear-algebra questions (or maybe you know more! It's hard to know). Each of these tags have a massive backlog of unanswered-but-reasonable questions that someone could provide good answers to.

$\endgroup$
3
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ The simple down to earth answer I needed! $\endgroup$
    – Trashtalk
    Apr 24, 2018 at 18:29
  • 12
    $\begingroup$ I love it when people take the time to write nice compliments to answers that deserve it (rather than just upvote) but it is even funnier if the person doing it is called 'trashtalk' $\endgroup$
    – Vincent
    May 2, 2018 at 11:04
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Perhaps also (contest-math) $\endgroup$
    – Abe
    May 3, 2018 at 5:49
6
$\begingroup$

In addition to @mixedmath's answer, using search terms is also super useful: a search query like this gets the most recent questions tagged with either (algebra-precalculus) or (trigonometry).

You can additionally add answers:0 to get questions which haven't been answered, and/or hasaccepted:no to get questions for which no answer has been accepted. It's also worth adding closed:no to see questions which are still open, and duplicate:no to hide questions which were closed for being duplicates.

Finally, you can add lastactive:..1m to restrict for being inactive for the last month, to see posts in the unanswered 'backlog'. Make sure to click newest to see recent ones too!

Using all this could give you a search query like this.

$\endgroup$
4
$\begingroup$

It's most likely the case that any easy question (that is, of course, relative) is answered extremely fast and if you want a chance at answering it then you need to just have the site open so that you see brand new questions. It's unlikely that you'll find an easy question that is more than an hour (maybe a few hours) old. I say this because most questions I ask are answered within an hour or are never answered. Once a question isn't answered quickly then it gets buried in a pile of bad questions.

$\endgroup$
1
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ "Once a question isn't answered quickly then it gets buried in a pile of bad questions." Or possibly it gets buried in a pile of good questions. $\endgroup$ Apr 27, 2018 at 21:34

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .